Watarase Onsen Hotel Himeyuri

Lovely and friendly staff. The property is an old school onsen hotel. The furnishing is a bit dated, but everything is very clean. The private onsen is a bonus and the large public onsen area was beautiful and relaxing. Dinner was nicely presented and delicious.

This is a review of Yamayuri which is the mid-range option among the three onsen hotel in Watarase. While a typical onsen resort, Yamayuri is an affordable choice to enjoy the luxuary of staying at a Japanese onsen hotel. This is not a ryokan, which is mostly a family owned smaller operation. The latter typically offers more intimate services including have your meals at your room. But a roykan stay usually costs more and the the hardware may not be as good as a corporate hotel. That said, you are still going to have a Kaiseki meal if you choose such a plan at Yamayuri, but you will have come down to the dining hall to have your meal. The food is good and tasty but not extraordinary. The service is dedicated but again not at the same level as at a ryokan. Watarase is not a 1st tier onsen location in Japan. The public baths shared by Yamayuri and Himeyuri were not crowded even during the high season I visited. There are four semi open-air bathrooms you can check in and lock for your family. They are again, usually available. This is another nice point about this hotel. Pros: affordable and nice scenary, onsen quality is pretty good. Cons: transportation link, WIFI connections and confusing booking system

従業員の方々の細やかなサービスが気持ちよかったです。 プライベートで泊まりに来たいと思いました。

Conveniently located near the Hongu shrine. This is a hotel complex with attached onsen. The hotel was very modern, with clean and functional rooms. We had a family room. It had 2 twin western beds with a separate tatami room attached. The hotel bedrooms were located a short walk from the main part of hotel where the reception and a little shop were located. The onsen was a further (short) walk away. There were public onsens and 5 private / family onsen. The food (dinner and breakfast) was included in the price - and was incredible. Everything was delicious and beautifully presented. Also, the hotel included a taxi transfer back to Tanabe city train station and a pick up from Hongu shrine. This was a really relaxing place.

It was our last stop of the Kumanokodo hiking. We went to Kumano Hongu and asked the information counter to help us call the hotel. They sent a van to pick us up. Our luggage had been sent there. There are three hotels at Watarase Onsen. We chose Hotel Himeyuri where the rooms are bigger with a separate tatami seating area. Our dinner and breakfast were served at Hotel Yamayuri. Both the meals were scrumptious. The onsen is an attraction of Watarase. It has the biggest outdoor onsen in Kansai area. Besides, there are four private outdoor onsen. If it is not occupied, you can simply go in and there is no time limit. The next day, we took the hotel shuttle to Shirahama where we took the JR back to Osaka.

Stayed here for just one night as our starting point in our Kumano Kodo walk. The service was excellent and our dinner and breakfast dishes were all delicious. No showers in the rooms so you must go to their private onsen located just beside the hotel to take a bath. Should have rated this 5 stars but deducted 1 star because their smoking room, located beside the main entrance and near the reception counter, was just a small walled cubicle with no ceiling. When someone lights up the smoke spreads throughout the area.

We were travelling by public transport, and the bus stop was very handy for the hotel. The food was very good, and the staff were very helpful explaining what things were. This was one of the few places we visited which had private onsens, which would have been nice, but the water did not look that clean. There was a sink and toilet in our room, but no shower.

It was a bit confusing for me when I started to book our Wakayama trip (plus the language barrier didn't help) This is a lovely relatively small area nestled in the Wakayama mountains near the Kumano Kodo trail. In this 'Watarase Onsen' area - also called "Watase" by locals since natural hot springs emerge here - there are 3 hotels run by the same company. They are named Himeyuri, Yamayuri & Sasayuri. They all share access to the same amenities. We stayed at Yamayuri which is probably the oldest and the largest. It has the main onsen and rotenburo (outdoor bath) facility on its grounds, though the Sasayuri property also has an onsen inside the hotel too. I don't know how that onsen compares with the one at Yamayuri, where we stayed. The onsen attached to Yamayuri is fantastic. It's beautiful and large and the private onsen areas are wonderful. All are accessible from all 3 hotels, and to visit the main onsen, you only need to wear your yukata and make the short walk. It seemed to me that the Sasayuri hotel was the most modern, (has beds and a more modern entry area) and had a little bit of upmarket-feel but online it looks comparable. I didn't visit Himeyuri so I don't know - but it looked nice. The staff are really helpful in explaining how to get to the hiking areas and have a speedy shuttle bus that picks you up in a few minutes after you call them. We had rented cars expecting to need them to ferry our hikers to and from but the hotel's shuttle made that unnecessary. It also has a charming area outside the public onsen for lunch and souvenirs where we all enjoyed ramen, udon and beers. The place was really perfect for our large group. We even glimpsed some monkeys wandering around the property! The big deal here for us, beyond the lovely onsen, was the FOOD. Its crazy good. Even the stuff that you think oh wow, I think I'm scared to try this - was awesome. We were SO happy we had chosen to stay 2 nights and would have loved to stay longer. The English here isn't fluent, but you always can get what you need, and the people are really nice and work hard to make your stay perfect.

Welcome to this timecapsule from the 70s! A charming hotel, probably not much has changed since the 70s. Large rooms in Himeyi where we stayed and private onsens available. The food was an exiciting experience with a 7-course dinner and a set meal with different varieties for breakfest. Very friendly and helpful manager and polite staff.

I arrived by bus two hours before check-in and, as both desks were not staffed, I went to the onsen. At mid-day, I had the facilities to myself! The young man checking me in responded to my Japanese in Japanese - rather than addressing me in broken English - which I appreciated. Then I discovered that both the main bath and the private bath fees were included in the room price - "Oh well!". I thought. The room was huge with two twin beds and a tatami seating area. It was very clean and comfortable with a bit of a "dated luxury" vibe. I ate in the noodle shop in the gift store in the evening wearing my yukata and the staff refunded the 700 yen I'd paid to use the onsen at lunch time. I wasn't expecting this as I wasn't a checked-in guest at the time. I thought that was very good of them. I was expecting it to be hard to get to use the private baths, but, in the early evening, most Japanese used the main bath so I didn't have to wait. You can walk to Kawayu Onsen through the tunnel in about 10-15 minutes. The bus stop to Hongu is right outside of the hotel. Not so good - I fell over on the steep, mossy pavement that leads from Himeyuri to the baths. It was raining but I was wearing hiking boots at the time! Take care! The English information is basically computer-translated gibberish. I asked the older man where the "kiosk" that is mentioned on that print was and he tried to get an English speaker. I had to be firm and say: "I speak Japanese. Please listen". I told the staff that "kiosk" means a small convenience store and they admitted there is no such thing on site! I guess it is a bad translation of "souvenir store". The nearest place to buy pre-hike snacks is in Hongu so come prepared. I ended up with a packet of crisps for my lunch during the hike! I got treated to some irritating Japanese "omotenashi" on check-out. I was asked if I knew where the bus stop was. I said, "Yes" and then a map was produced and I was given the whole "We are here (circle) ... here are some steps (circle) ... there are two bus stops (circle, circle) ..." etc. Completely unnecessary as I had said, "Yes" and my bus was coming in a five minutes. I wish some Japanese would just listen rather than following the manual and thinking that telling you what you already know is good service!